1380984377.3491A History of English Language

A history of the english language 310
maican Creole is a separate language or a point on a continuum that includes Jamaican
English is a charged political question with implications for educational policy, the legal
system, and the mass media. As we shall see in § 230, the problem of definition involves
whether a creole language is stable or evolving, and, if evolving, in what direction.
A determination of these questions requires a consideration of the complex history of
the region, which, for the English language, goes back to the arrival of settlers in
Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and in Bermuda two years later. A full history would take
into account the Spanish presence in the Caribbean during the sixteenth century, a
heritage that is clearly seen in Puerto Rico, where both Spanish and English survive side
by side, as well as in Belize, Panama, and Guyana. 34 For most of the anglophone
Caribbean islands, however, including Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, the
Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands, the most relevant languages in contact are
those of the west coast of Africa. Ewe, Twi, Efik, Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa, and other African
languages were spoken by slaves who were brought to the islands during the seventeenth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. In addition to the syllable-timed rhythm that we
have seen in other varieties of world English, final syllables in Jamaican Creole
frequently have rising tone, reflecting the West African tone language spoken by the
slaves, who carried their own phonology into their reinterpretation of a Germanic
language with light and heavy stresses.
Despite gaps in the written records of both the early forms of Caribbean English and
of the African source languages, continuing lexicographical efforts have revealed much
about the complex history of English in this part of the world. A large number of words
can be traced clearly to African languages. Forms of nyam (to eat) occur as verbs in
Wolof and Fula and as nouns referring to food in Hausa na:ma (flesh, meat), Efik unam
(flesh), Twi εnãm (flesh, meat of any animal). In Jamaican Creole, nyam is generally the
verb, ninyam a noun (food), and nyaams a specific food (yam). One of the most
characteristic Jamaicanisms, juk (to prick, poke, spur, jab, stab), has been traced to
several possible sources, the most plausible of which is perhaps F.G.Cassidy’s suggestion
of Fula jukka (to spur, poke, knock down). 35 Obeah (the practice of malignant magic) has
roots in Efik ubio (a charm) and Twi
Caribbean English is in
(witch, wizard). Part of the vitality of
34
See John Holm, “The Spread of English in the Caribbean Area,” in Focus on the Caribbean, ed.
Manfred Görlach and J.A.Holm (Amsterdam, 1986), pp. 1–22.
35
See F.G.Cassidy, Jamaica Talk: Three Hundred Years of the English Language in Jamaica, (2nd
ed., London, 1971), p. 146. For other examples cited here, see also F.G.Cassidy, “Etymology in
Caribbean Creoles,” in Görlach and Holm, pp. 133–39.